Poke
by Leper Gnome
Summary: Because she hates getting poked. Especially by him. [sorta SpecterxJunie] [rated for light swearing and slight content] [long author's note]


Well, for once, I'm writing a story before making a beginning author's note.

Anyway.

Listen, I know I've had some faithful readers in my time here, and you guys would always encourage my stories and gave me my first confidence that I really could write. I think you know who you are, if you're not too mad at me to read this, or if you haven't moved on to other fandoms. Incase you are reading this, I'd like to give you my sincere apologies for just leaving without giving any notice. I know you really did like my stories and it felt like people actually looked forward to my new ones. So I really am sorry for leaving you all like this. I know I'm not the only author in this section, but I'm pretty sure the majority of my stories were here, and this is where I started. I hope you guys can forgive me, because I promise I'll keep this fandom in mind and even when I do leave, it would only be temporary, most likely, and I'd do something as a goodbye.

But on a lighter note, in the time I've been away, my writing has gotten much better, in my opinion. Plus I'm gonna start a new game of Ape Escape 3 today, so playing that will keep me here longer.

I hope everyone enjoys this!

**Poke**

"Hey."

No response.

"Hey, Junie."

Silence. Specter became aggravated.

"Junie!" He poked her harshly on her back through the bars of his cage.

Her head whipped around, her hat coming slightly loose. "Hm? What?...What's up, Specter?" she said in a hurry, fixing said hat.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, well, more like demanded. Demanded, because his tone was more interrogating than concerned.

"…Yeah…" she answered, fixing him with a look that said 'why the hell are you asking me this?'.

"…You're not okay," he said, giving her an equally accusing look.

"I am!" she insisted, turning back to her video game. "Geez, I got interrogated at home, and now I'm getting interrogated here? Can't a girl play a game in peace?"

"Well, under normal circumstances, I'd just leave you alone and be content – and by content, I mean downright ecstatic – to sit back and stare at you all day." Junie rolled her eyes; ever since Specter had first called her pretty, he'd made a custom of hitting on her every chance he got. And chances did he get. "But maybe, and this is a big maybe, you're getting questioned so much because, one, you're never quiet for more than a few minutes at a time, two, you don't normally go ballistic on me when I ask a question so simple as that, and three, you've been on the same 'game over' screen on that game for about ten minutes now. So what's up?"

Junie turned her head to look at him, annoyed. "You've been counting?"

Specter smirked. "When it comes to spending time with you, I _always_ count the minutes. It's the only thing I can be thankful for at Thanksgiving."

Junie's eyes narrowed as she looked up at the sky moodily. "Shut up."

"You're dodging my question."

"I said shut up!"

"You shouldn't be yelling so much like that. It's not good for you….And you know I wouldn't want anything bad happening to you." Specter smirked for a third time that day as Junie's head whipped around to face him again, this time in irritation, rather than surprise.

"Yeah well, you shouldn't hit on me so much, because then something bad definitely _will_ happen to _you_!" she threatened, turning back around.

"Okay, okay…" he replied, holding his hands up in the traditional male 'don't hurt me!' way(albeit still smirking). "Anyway…what's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem!" Junie all but shrieked, making birds fly up out of nearby trees and cry out in alarm, as well as waking up some monkeys, _and_ making monkeys who were already awake turn to stare at her.

"_What?!_" she demanded, looking at each of the several monkeys in turn. Monkeys wearing blue or yellow pants squealed and ran to hide in or behind something in their confinement; monkeys wearing black pants drew their machine guns, but ran as well after finding there was no ammo, and monkeys wearing red pants leapt to the bars of their cage, chattering a loud challenge. It was those rowdy monkeys that got Junie worked up more. "Oh, you guys wanna go?? Fine, bring it on! I'm gonna—"

"Whoa, whoa, hey, Junie…calm down!" Specter poked her again, hoping to draw her attention away from the still-screeching monkeys.

"_Maybe_ I'll calm down if you keep your paws off me!!" She suddenly rounded on him, poking him sharply on the nose.

Specter went cross-eyed for I moment, looking down at his nose, before looking back at Junie with a sardonic expression. "Do you even realize what you're asking me to do? I'm not Supermonkey, you know."

Junie stared at him, eyes wide but expression unrecognizable, before moving to the left slightly to bang her head once against one of the bars of his cage, eyes shut tightly. "You're impossible."

"Yeah…but that's what you love me for, right?"

She opened her eyes, giving him a look to rival a basilisk's stare. "Don't even joke, Specter. Don't even--"

"Maybe _you_ shouldn't joke yourself." he said, tone 100-percent serious, though he was grinning and his eyes were narrowed mockingly.

She paused for a moment. "Yeah, whatever….If you wanna believe that _I'm_ head over heels for you, you must be pretty friggin' desperate."

Specter considered reminding her about her language, but registered what she was implying. But, out of habit, decided to question her anyway. "Wait…what are you saying?"

Junie half-grinned. "Well, I'm mostly saying you're desperate, but…"

Specter blinked. "'But'…?" he prompted, raising a non-existent brow.

**(AN: You know, 'cause monkeys don't have eyebrows…I think…)**

"I think you're not too stupid to understand."

His assumptions were right; she thought she wasn't good enough for someone to harbor feelings for her. "Whoa, Junie, don't go there…"

"And why not?" she challenged, suddenly grinning up at him.

"Ehm…" He remembered the proposition they had made about a month ago; according to that, she was supposed to cave first, not him…. "No reason. Just…have a little more…confidence in yourself, 'kay? I don't wanna see you break down or anything." His grinned returned as soon as hers vanished.

She clicked her tongue once, returning to her spot on the ground. _I almost got him…_

Specter inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. _She almost got me_…

Junie was almost relaxed went he felt a poke at her back. "What?" she said testily, not turning.

"You never told me what your problem was."

"Specter…" she half-growled it, half-yelled it, and Specter knew to back down.

"Alrighty, you just keep that to yourself…"

**Termino**

So, how was it? Junie's all freaking out and moody because she's having trouble with CERTAIN FEELINGS, ahem, bye the way. I just couldn't really fit that it there with taking away from the fun of the love-but-mostly-hate relationship between Junie and Specter. AreandAre, pleasethanks.

I just realized, the word 'proposition' that I used up there made me nervous. I know that you all know what I mean, but this weird kid in my grade during lunch at school was like 'will you marry me?' I was like '…' and my friends were like '…'(I didn't know him). And then a few minutes after that the seat next to me was empty for a second and he sat there and was like 'so, about that proposal…' I was like 'Joey, help me' (Joey's one my friends I was sitting with) and Joey just starts laughing.

Sorry, sorry, enough of my life story. Anyway. AreandAre.


End file.
